ENRON AND THE PRESIDENT

The indictment of Enron chairman Kenneth Lay gives the Democrats a “windfall” according to the San Francisco Chronicle:

The indictment of former Enron chief Ken Lay represents an election year windfall for Democrats — who say the man President Bush nicknamed “Kenny Boy” is a poster boy for corporate greed and malfeasance. Lay’s indictment Wednesday (July 7) in connection with the energy giant’s 2001 bankruptcy hands Sen. John Kerry and the Democrats the perfect person to link the president’s re-election campaign to the high-living corporate miscreants who left their companies, workers and stockholders in financial ruin, politicians and analysts said. (more…)

MEMBERS’ FORUM: Wayne’s World Sitrep

This week we introduce a new feature to To The Point: The Members’ Forum, selected articles submitted by TTPers themselves. We launch this feature with TTPer Wayne Daniels. Publication of such submissions does not imply To The Point’s full agreement with them. —JW

The dominate world event is expected to be our November Presidential election. I say this not out of nationalistic arrogance, but because the beliefs and governing philosophies of the leader of the world’s only superpower actually do matter. His beliefs about the uses and limitations of military power matter. The US economy is the world’s largest and (more…)

AVOIDING THE TEDIUM OF EDWARDS

While there are several obvious minor plusses and minuses that attach to the Edwards selection, Mr. Kerry’s chances would be about the same if he had chosen almost any of the top dozen mentioned vice presidential names. We are already 24 hours into a frantic over-assessment of what the Edwards selection means. Republican-leaning commentators are painting in bold hues Mr. Edwards’ minor shortcomings, while those who lean Democratic are falling over their adjectives to describe Mr. Edwards’ selection as a stroke of inspiration on the part of Mr. Kerry. It is all too tedious to listen to.

The political class’s (more…)

EATING AWAY AT FREEDOM

Ideology is a good thing, I suppose. A thoughtful and serious person who chooses to adventure into the political climate of today has to have one. But too often ideology is the downfall of the political arena. It lends itself to the demise of debate and discussion because in all honesty, ideology seldom, if ever, works in reality. Ideology, all things considered, is the appropriate and advantageous place for tolerance and flexibility.

Our Forefathers knew ideology alone wouldn’t achieve the country they set out to create, a country of freedom and liberty. Recently, I read that upon leaving the Constitutional (more…)

ELIMINATE IRAQ

Not the country. Not the people who live in the country. Eliminate the country’s name.

“Iraq” is a plain Arabic noun – al-iraq – meaning “the shore and grazing area of a river.” Inspiring, isn’t it?

Prior to 1921, there had never been a country called “Iraq” – never in history. “Iraq” was an invention of the British after World War I, who along with the French were carving up pieces of the defeated Ottoman Turkish Empire into colonies called League of Nations Mandates.

Stitched together from three distinct Ottoman vilayets or provinces – Kurdish Mosul, Sunni Arab Baghdad, (more…)

THE DEMOCRATS’ BIG LIE CAMPAIGN

As wars go, the conflict in Iraq was — and is — as good as it gets.

A three week military campaign with minimal casualties, 25 million people liberated from one of the most sadistic tyrants of modern times, the establishment of a military and intelligence base in the heart of the terrorist world. What well-meaning person could oppose this?

In fact there is none. It was one thing to worry about the war before the fact, as Brent Scowcroft and others did, that a military conflict could lead to eruptions in the Muslim world and a conflagration out of (more…)

GROVER IN MANCHURIA

Wrap your brain around this:

· The Policy Director for the Intelligence Division of the Department of Homeland Security – who has access to classified information on all our ports, airports, and everything else pertaining to national security – is a Moslem with direct ties to Islamic radicals under indictment by the FBI.

· This individual, named Faisal Gill, received his security clearances despite his lying on his clearance forms about his ties to Islamist organizations. When his deception was disclosed, he was suspended last March – and then reinstated with his clearances intact.

· The reason he got the (more…)